FOXBOROUGH, Mass.—By the time Baltimore Ravens linebacker Dannell Ellerbe snuggled home a Tom Brady pass with 6:49 to play in the fourth quarter, tucking away a 28-13 victory in the AFC championship game, the question floating around fast-emptying Gillette Stadium was: How much more of this lies ahead for fans in New England?

This marks the eighth season since the Patriots won a Super Bowl, and as the combination of Brady and coach Bill Belichick gets ever longer in the tooth, it’s fair to wonder whether there is much more they can do.

That’s a natural thought in the wake of bitter disappointment—check back when training camp kicks in and optimism is again high. What’s more, on Sunday night, there are excuses handy for the Patriots. Good ones, too.

New England played without one of the NFL's great forces of nature, tight end Rob Gronkowski, who re-injured his arm in the first quarter of the Patriots’ playoff win over the Houston Texans. Then, in the first quarter against the Ravens, cornerback Aqib Talib, the guy who had stabilized a woeful secondary, injured his thigh and didn't return. With those players available, maybe the game turns out different and maybe there's no cause to worry about the Brady-Belichick legacy just yet.

That’s probably not the kind of thing the tight-lipped Belichick is ever going to give his thoughts on, especially not while Sunday’s loss is still stinging. Moments after the game, he was asked about what is now a pretty long Patriots Super Bowl drought. Belichick said, “I don’t know. I’m just focused on this game.”

But even in just focusing on this game, it's hard to ignore the fact that in falling to the Ravens, the Patriots met an end that's getting too familiar. They came into the game as heavy favorites but were roughed up by a more physical team. The Ravens weren't intimidated by the Patriots’ vaunted offense, and Baltimore simply out-slugged a team that's still more finesse than muscle. That’s how every team that has handed the Patriots a postseason loss in the last decade has gotten it done.

The Ravens were whistled three times for unnecessary roughness personal fouls. Those kinds of things are problematic when you lose, but for the Ravens, knocking the Patriots around—preferably within the rules—was part of the plan. And as the game wore on, it was clear the Ravens' defense had Brady unnerved. He was rushing decisions and having a hard time finding his comfort zone.

Brady made a mistake at the close of the first half when he failed to either call a timeout or hurry to the line for a spike to stop the clock, wasting an opportunity for a touchdown by allowing precious seconds to roll away. Still, the Patriots went into the locker room with a 13-7 lead. Brady had 139 yards on 14-for-24 passing in the first half.

But in the second half, he completed only 15 of his 30 attempts, winding up with 320 yards and two interceptions. That lightning-fast, precision offense that overwhelmed so many foes over the course of this year? Nowhere to be found. The Patriots went scoreless for the entire half.

For Brady, it will be another offseason of questions. “It’s part of the competition,” he said. “You have the opportunity to win the game, and we came up short. There’s frustration in that we wish we could have done better. But they’re not going to give it to you. We didn’t earn it. They earned it. They played a good game.”

Brady, 35, remains one of the greats in the game, and though he's as competitive as ever—there is no shame in reaching the Super Bowl one year and the AFC championship the next—the game plan for beating Brady and the Patriots has become obvious. It's the Patriots themselves who consistently say that they measure success in Super Bowl wins, and it has been eight years since they hurdled that bar, each time coming to much the same end.

“It always comes to a screeching halt,” Brady said. “That’s just the way it is. Only two teams advance, and those two teams deserve it. We’ve lost before. It just takes a while to get over it.”

Indeed, the Patriots have lost before. In recent years, they’ve gotten all too used to it.